An extra gauge on main dash, larger gauge above the Speedo/Rev counter now ( a clock ) and an early VW dash handle , a nice tie in to the Porsche styled dash ...

not shown here , but I wrapped an aluminium sleeve around the steering column to hide the original switch gear mounts and rivetted it in place ..

I also marked out the rear lights ..nice early flat lens Lucas units ..

I also templated and cut out the rear inner arches ..I had the templates from Graham's car but we are moving the inner arches in a bit on Rays , just inside the frame at the rear ...Grahams are quite close to his wheels and we are taking the opportunity to move them in slightly on this one ...so a bit of trimming of the original templates gave me a pattern that fitted inboard about 2'' from Graham's ..I cleaned them up but need to go and get some materials first thing in the morning , so will glass them in tomorrow towards the end of the day so I can work on the car without disturbing them whilst curing ...

The rear bulkhead panel arrived yesterday afternoon (!) so I fitted it today by rivetting and bonding it in place and the lower edge was rivetted and bonded to a piece of aluminium box section to brace it ...
I then cut the hatch hole to enable access to the fuel tank and fitted the hatch cover plate using self tappers ...

I also started to dress the front bulkhead area with aluminium panels as well ...this tidies up the area where old joins new and also helps in tying it all together structurally too...

The two rear arch panels I cut yesterday were then propped into place and wedged so they couldn't move ...the top edge was then glassed in place to hold them in and I ran a few strips along under the frame rail to tidy up the slots cut to fit them ... I took the opportunity to bond the rear of the bulkhead in using stixall along the outside edges and bottom edge inside and out ...Tomorrow morning when this has all cured nicely , I can fit a smaller panel at the front of the inner arch to tie it to the rear of the bulkhead ..this will tidy up this part , isolate it from a mud and rain point of view and also add some great strength as a result of creating boxed area's ..

the photo isn't great ..I was losing light ..but you can just make out the rear frame tubing running diagonally from approx. 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock across the arch ...tucking the panel inside this is a bit more work but ensures we have no clearance issues ...

Just over 4 hours at the workshop today of which 3 were spent on Ray's car ...

I tied in the inner arches to the rear of the bulkhead and bonded them to the rear outrigger / frame area as well .. I used aluminium as its a nicer join if ally meets ally ..
I also made a little body tie bracket that was bonded and tecscrewed to the end of the outrigger and bonded to the inside of the body holding the end of the cill in place , blanking off that open end and also another fixing point for the rear bulkhead ..

This whole area will be finished in a black underbody coating like schutz or similar , so will all blend together nicely ...

I finished off by making a start on cladding the centre console between stick and dash ....the area all the switch gear is going to live ..this is rivetted in place ...

tomorrow I will clad the tunnel sides and start mapping out the top surface as well ....

As planned , this afternoon I clad the tunnel sides on the inside of the framework , two little exterior panels had to be fitted at the rear due to handbrake linkage etc.. and a small removable panel is in place at the rear that exposes the handbrake pivot when removed ...

I also made the hardboard templates for cladding the top of the tunnel , these were delivered to my aluminium man on the way home so he can make them asap ......they are getting some swaiging put into them and I will brace the back of the front one with aluminium box section to stiffen it up ..both panels will be screwed , not rivetted ...so access to prop , rear of gearbox and handbrake is still achievable ....

Aluminium tunnel panels fitted in place today , I braced the backs with 20mm aluminium box to stiffen then up ...

Ray popped down and we ran through the gearshift gate plans and lower dash layout ...I braced the rear of the lower dash panel and fitted up the dash after he left and made a template for the shift gate ..dropped it to my engineer mate on the way home ..

Waiting for a few bits to finish the cockpit area ..so thought I would tackle the door work required ...

I welded a piece of flat strip to the edge of the door hinges to stiffen them up and painted the door frames with POR 15 , rehung them using the aluminium bushes and new hinge pin bolts secured with nylocs . I then braced the front corners of the door jamb onto the space frame with 2 home made brackets . This really made the body rigid and took the flex out of it ...a small bracing bracket on the top of the hinge pivot attached to the body reduced the flex there as well ... finally , I tied the top hinge to the bottom hinge using 8mm button head bolts inside some aluminium tube to stiffen them up too .....

I had a real fight with Grahams doors in his build , trying to make a good solution ... the modified door skins , lighter frames and extra bracing ensures these are now much easier to deal with ...

I cut down the dovetails to fit between latch and door skin and fitted them using a steel 3mm spacer plate ...

finally the door skins were sanded to fit .. a few mm off the back edge to get the frame snug , trial fitted , marked along the frames , removed , sanded where the frame touches and then bonded into place with several clamps to ensure they don't move ....

I have spent several hours over the last few days doing lots of incidental stuff ..things like fitting a battery tray , battery clamps and the wiring from starter through a solenoid and a cutout switch mounted on the inner wing and across the bulkhead to the battery , earth cables , plumbed the clutch slave cylinder to master cylinder , fitted the throttle cable , fitted a choke cable using a bicycle cable adjuster fitted to the carb. , jobs like that ...

The battery sits in an angle iron tay , the clamps fit through the bulkhead at 45 degrees pulling it against another battery stay bolted to the bulkhead ...

Cutout switch is easy to reach with bonnet open on the inner wing but out of sight when shut ...I double braced the area the throttle cable goes through the bulkhead for strength with an extra aluminium plate fitted on top of the existing one ..

choke cable is a really nice T handle style , I mounted it to the under dash area to the right of the steering wheel ..its mounted to a 5mm plate sat under the dash and another 5mm plate with 8mm studs welded to it goes through the dash and clamps it rigidly in place ...nice and strong so it can be confidently pulled on ....

I looped the heater outlets together and braced the loop with an aluminium bracket ...I also made a start on the radiator hoses ...I have cut a Scimitar one down slightly to fit on the top ..it has a spur for the expansion bottle which is handy ...the lower hose is going to be a bit more complicated ..so thats a job for tomorrow ...

Had some hose fun yesterday ....I fitted the modified Scimitar hose previously , so I then plumbed the expansion tank into the spur on the hose using two hose ends and a joiner so I could run the 3/8th hose into the larger inlet on the top hose .. I wanted to make sure the expansion hose didn't flap around or get snagged on the inner wings and due to its height , cable tying the hose to my framework wasn't an option , so I joined two pieces of angle to make a channel that the hose runs along . then mounted this on two legs that are welded to a third bit of angle that I bolted to the framework ..

The Bottom hose needed to cross from drivers side to the pass. side due to using the Lotus rad. , so I cut a U bend hose , turned the cut piece round joining it with some copper tube ...this gave me a question mark shaped hose ...this joins a piece of copper tube that runs across the radiator and has a 90 degree bend on it and joined to another rubber hose finishing the job ...all copper tube has been painted black to blend it in ...

Bit more interior work over last few days ....A pair of fibreglass buckets from Tribute Automotive were fitted to slightly modified seat runners that came with the donor vehicle.

I also fitted a floor mounted dipper switch , a Moto-Lita steering wheel was supplied by Ray ..its a non dished item and it meant I had to tweak the steering column mounts and cut a small semi circular notch from the dash to raise the column slightly to give the wheel room without compromising leg room etc. The flat 4 spoked design also put it a bit closer to the dash than normally , so I removed the rear of the mountny boss and fitted a 12mm spacer made by my mate in the rear and re-assembled with slightly longer machine screws ...its an invisible mod that doesn't affect the way its mounted , but it brings the boss 12mm closer to the driver ...

Combined with the quarter turn latches , which Triumph kindly supply one of with the donor vehicle as a boot latch ...they work really well..

I also managed to make a start on boxing in the inner cills and tying them to the bodyshell ...more to do on these until they are finished but I was waiting for some gel coat to dry on another job !! The screen frame arrived mid day too ...

Plugging away at sealing up the cockpit , integrating the bulkheads front and rear etc...

Both sides of the cockpit will eventually be satin blacked and the combination of fibreglass , steel and aluminium will all blend nicely ...
The centre tunnel and rear bulkhead will largely be left in the aluminium finish ...

I got the gate shift back from my engineer mate this morning ..all now mounted to a round pedestal with a fixing lip at its base ...the original rubber gearstick boot is still in place under the gate to hide the workings ...

having that final piece to the tunnel puzzle meant that I could finish this area ..all fitted with 5mm panhead set screws so it can come off for access ... difficult to see , but a shortened and tweaked fibreglass tunnel has also been fitted to cover the gearbox under the dash ...